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BURGLAR BILL
"By. Senna Elizabeth Higgins.
(.Copyright "by W: G. Chapman.)
' Burglar Bill breasted the storm
11 bravely? The lights'b"f-a Tillage were
,. directSy-'ahead of him,anti;.h'e pressed
on through the deep falleii'sndw with
"a vion "of warmth) food' and comfort
" ahead".-
Burglar-Bill was a reformed: bur-
glar d?hat was the. reason why he
f! wasin ;the most deplorable condition
81 of tiishfe 'Hard-as-had been hfelluck
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Deftly Opened the. Old-Safe.
-s
-i for the past. week, he had a "trade"
9. that would have brought him a ready
gj income with no other equipment than
q; a pair of pincers and a skeletojikey.
But when Bill had left the peniten
0 tiary, his sentence reduced one-half
jj through the kindly intervention of a
friendly and human chaplain, he had
ft. nade a sacred promise "never to
j; i r 3. safe-again."
'v. ..been hard work so far keep-
ing that pledge. Bill had gone to the
city. Whenever he got honest work,
however, either the police exposed
him or old cronies came about the
place and got him into disrepute.
So now Bill was tramping about
the country, where his past was riot
known. It was at a bad season of
the year for work, and, caught in a
great snow storm, he was now "mak
ing his way towards the nearest vil
lage. "I can't go much further," breath
ed the well-nigh exhausted wanderer,
as he neared a lonely house set by
itself in the midst of extensive
grounds. "I see a light in that place.
I'll apply for something to eat, for
I'm nearly famished. Surely they
wouldn't turn a dog from their step
a night like this."
Burglar Bill went around to the
kitchen door of the house. He knock
ed, and a stout, comely woman an
swered his summons. Her sympa
thetic face gave him a welcome be
fore she spoke, his forlorn aspect-appealing
to her pity at once. .
"What do you want?" she asked,
wonderingly.
"A bit to eat, madam, a warm cor
ner in a barn, anywhere so I can rest
after a ten-mile tramp in the deep
snow."
"Who are you a workman?"
."No, ma?am,". answered. Bill. "I'm
npt much oanything as yet. I was
a. burglar."
The frank admission somewhat
daunted Mrs. Warden, the house
keeper. Then the frank truthfulness
of the applicant, his eager, wistful
'ace attracted her.
"That is not a verytreditable thing
.o say," observed Mrs. Warden.
"No, madam, but it's the truth. I
'xm not trying to hide anything, and
1 wouldn't be here'begging if I wasn't
tn honest man."
"Come in and welcome," spoke, the
jenerous-hearted housekeeper, act
lg on a womanly impulse-of her true
lature. "We have'sickness and trou
ble in thsJhouse and I can't pay much